Dev's POV:
A tight slap upon my face and the next moment I found myself groveling in the dust of the wooden floor underneath.
Very well. I absolutely deserved this for hurting my Tara like an animal!! I told myself as I tried to get up.
However, my job was done by the same person who slapped me. He held my collar and picked me up and before I could even straighten myself, he placed another tight slap upon my cheek.
What the!!... must be Adijay! That spoilt brat is taking a revenge on me now!!
-"Listen Ad..."
"No swine, YOU listen me.. How dare you huh? How bloody dare you to insult your wife infront of everyone??" An angry outburst hit my ears.
Oh no, it was Kshitiz. Well now I understood why his slaps felt so strong. The result of his years of workout he had poured in slapping me left and right afterall.
"...That too over and over again." Another voice followed.
Adit's voice.
-"Adit.."
"Don't." He placed his right palm in the air, just inbetween us, and dismissed my call. "I don't want to hear my name from your mouth, Dev." He added harshly.
"You think he is really bothered about that?" Kshitiz rolled his eyes and chuckled.
"Right... the person who doesn't touch a single drop of alcohol and yet behaves like a chronic drunkard.. insults and humiliates his wife every time.. sleeps around with his colleagues.. fools around his friends.... what will be he even bothered of?!!" Adit chuckled too, his tone dripping with pure sarcasm.
Okay. I admit that I deserved all of this. But sleeping around with my colleagues? Hell, NO man. I didn't even imagine anything like that.. never ever.. and I had thought that among everyone else, atleast Adit would know about this!
-"So you believe that I sleep around with other woman when Tara is not there with me?" I stared at Adit, letting my hard gaze slowly meet his loathsome one.
"Actually you know what? I don't trust you anymore. So if Nitara's allegations really come true na, I won't get surprised... not even a bit!" He said to me.
"Neither me." Kshitiz joined him. "You have turned into such a mean person that I really think I shouldn't have let Nitara marry you that day! You clearly don't deserve her, man!!"
"True. Nitara would have been a lot more happier if she was with Kshitiz today." Adit heaved a damp sigh.
Was he like regretting his decision of supporting me back then?
Hell!!
"I didn't mean that, Adit." Kshitiz was concious all of a sudden. But Adit dismissed him gently and said-
"I know. But I did mean it Kshitiz. I mean.... just look at you! You have groomed yourself into such a gentleman.. and then look at this retrogressive species! No wander Nitara's future was better secured with YOU and not with HIM!!"
I am the retrogressive species? And Tara's future was secured with the progessive one??
-You have any doubt? Mind retorted from the back.
And well, he was correct... just like always.
-"Now that he is getting married to Amaya, will you please stop your match making Adit??"
"Why? You got jealous again??" He blinked his eyes rapidly and dramatically and continued- "What is this jealousy about, Dev? What is this insecurity? Is it that you don't trust her enough or you don't believe your own love?? But even if it so then why are you letting it happen? A relation where you know each other for eight years and have been married for five years now, doesn't deserve emotions like these. Insecurity, jealousy, possessiveness.. what nonsense are these, Dev??"
'Deeply shaken' was probably an understatement. Almost mortified at his words, I looked up at Adit again. And this time, I found his gaze just as hard my mine.
"He is not used to such soft words, Adit. Didn't you see it from his way of dealing with his wife?" There had been a long pause inbetween. Kshitiz spoke to break that pause with his his same, old sarcasm.
Adit just huffed at this.
"Go. Apologise to Nitara." He said few minutes later.
"Apology and him! Good joke." Kshitiz chuckled again. Adit glared at him in return and said to me-
"Go and apologise, Dev..... You have insulted his would be brother-in-law enough. He didn't say a word about it. Neither did Amaya say anything... You didn't apologise to Addy for raising hands on him as if he was some roadside goon! But now if you don't apologise to Nitara then just remember that THIS will the last time we'll see each other again!!"
"Ask him to promise her that he won't insult her again.. whether in public or in private." Kshitiz added next.
Adit tilted his head and looked at me intently. "Heard him properly?" He raised his brows to ask.
-"Even if you people hadn't said all these, I would have still......" I would have still apologised to her. Its high time already! I can't spend my entire life fighting with her!! And as a matter of fact, even she doesn't deserve any of this! She is just too precious for all such nonsense.
"You would have..?" Adit broke my little thought bubble.
I shook my head and sighed.
-"Nothing. I would better go and find her."
•
Our room was dark and cold when I entered there. Perhaps it was becoz I had forgotten to turn off the a.c and none of the lights were on when I left for the party.
It was evening back then... maybe around five or six. The sky was still clear outside and dusky sunlight was flooding in my room. I didn't need to use the room's LEDs in presence of such natural amber glow. But now that the evening was gone and night had came down to take its place, the pitch darkness of the room almost gave me a mini suffocation attack!
Damn! Why didn't Tara switch on the lights when she knew that I am scared of the dark?
-"TARA??" I called her aloud as I switched on the lights myself.
-"Ta..."
My eyes fell upon the empty room ahead and my voice trailled off immediately.
If Tara wasn't there inside then where was she? Inside the washroom??
With a deep frown creasing my forehead, I scurried towards the closed door at the other end of our room.
-"Tara??" I called again as I knocked the door with the back of my palm.
However, as was expected, no replies came.
My knuckles tightened at this and I knocked louder. The knocks only reverberated through the wooden pane and came back to me, making me huff and bang the door the loudest.
Little did I know that the door wasn't locked at all to endure so much torture! Just two-three pushes on it and it gave up easily, falling open ajar and revealing the entire view inside that consisted of nothing other than a big, dark void.
Yes, Tara wasn't there inside too.
-Idiot, your wife is staying with Raima since the past two days and not with you. So you better go and check there instead of wasting time at the doorstep of your washroom! Mind suggested from the back of my cranium.
Huh, that was some smart advise from my smart brain. No doubt I followed it real quick as I came out of the room, bolted the door behind and ran towards Raima's suite downstairs.
But guess what? When I really reached there, I found her room properly bolted and locked.... Meant that she hadn't came back to her room yet.
But if this was it then where was my Tara now?
Not wasting another moment over there, I came back to the party downstairs. Locating Raima was the next thing that I had to do and my job was done pretty smoothly as I found her sitting at our reserved table and sipping upon a lemonade. Amaya was there by her side to help her out.
My eyes hovered to the surroundings immediately. On their way they found Addy jamming along with his band members while Adit and Kshitiz were found standing across the iron railings with two burning cigars in each of their hands.
Tara wasn't there with any one of them.
My heart beats raised at an instant. I gulped hard and scanned the area for one more time before rushing to the kids arena downstairs.
Only god knows how many times I chanted his name within that time span. For some reason I was feeling that something was not right at all and my heart beats kept rising becoz of it. There was even a point when my limbs had begun trembling and the clot of tears forming in my eyes, threatend to burst any time soon.
But I didn't want to cry unless I saw my Tara right before my eyes. Hence, I just took à deep breath and ran to the kids arena as fast as my trembling legs permitted.
Hoping that my Tara was fine and was playing with our baby somewhere in the arena, was all that I had been doing on my way. But my hopes got crushed brutally the moment I found that Tara wasn't there in the arena either.
Nanny Jenifer, one of the oldest and soft spoken nannies of the ward, informed me that Niravana wasn't there with them. She was picked up by Tara long ago and that she was supposed to spend the night with senior Mrs. Malik, i.e, Amaya loving grandmom.
I guess Tara had done this arrangement so that Niravana didn't need to spent time with drunk people like her mommy or both her maasis'. Obviously it was thoughtful of her. But then why did she even choose to drink when she knew that she couldn't handle alcohol at all?
Wait. She can't handle alcohol. I knew that.... And still I told her so many things!
Fuck, man!!!!
My remaining breathes hitched inside my lungs with this mere thought. However, ignoring all of it, I ran in the direction of Amaya's grandmom's room.
Somewhere down the line I knew that even attempt was going to fail and so it happened when Mrs. Malik opened the door and I found only Niravana inside her room, happily muching on her cheese burst pizza and binge watching the Harry Potter series.
I had told Mrs. Malik that I was just there to bid good night to my daughter. I didn't want her to worry about Tara and so I left her room after exchanging few helpless, fake pleasanteries with my baby. My baby.. my Princess was happy to spend some quality time with a person who resembled much like her own granny and here I happy to see her happy. Atleast I was relieved to see her in safe hands. And now it was time to see Tara equally safe and sound.
Whispering a silent promise to my baby that I would get her mommy protected from all the evils of this world, myself included, I rushed upstairs to our room once again.
•
The untouched bolt of the door of room no. 107 told me that Tara hadn't came back yet. A deep sigh escaped my throat as I touched the bolted with careless fingers.
Even a drop of tear spilled out of my left eye. I wipped that hurriedly and took out my phone from my bermuda's pocket. With those same careless fingers, I opened the contact list and begun scrolling it down until the pointer stopped at a particular name- 'Angel'.
3 years. 3 fucking long years had passed since I made a call on that number. Neither did any call from that number came to me. Strange it is, I know. But thats how things worked between us after Tara and me got seperated. I still remember how there used to be a time when both of us called each other atleast eight times a day. Absolute love sick we were... And then came the time when our number of calls reduced to zero. Forget calls, we didn't even see each other's faces for days. Days rolled into years and in today's date, both of us were so aloof of each other that even the mental connection between seemed to be breaking apart and falling into pieces!
You call this an ego war? Well, ego was there between us for sure. But what was more prominent, more distinct was a subtle pain that recided in both our hearts, had no defination of its own and which was undoubtedly the hardest thing to forget in this lifetime!
A faint ringing sound broke my reverie.
I shook my head and looked down at my phone's screen. It displayed that Tara's number had been called. Ofcourse I had made the call myself. But the funniest part here was that I didn't even realise when did I do such a thing.
I chucked at my hopelessness and held the phone against my ear. Deep inside, I knew that Tara wasn't going to pick up my call. And so it happened- the first call went unanswered, making me double anxious and triple irritated to call back her number again.
I was still standing inside the corridor when a sudden pang of suffocation hit me. Maybe the growing tention within my nerves was the cause of it. But whatever it was, I decided to get rid of it first by moving to the deck and standing in the fresh air for few minutes. I was almost sure that the fresh air was going to get me some good ideas regarding getting my Tara back. Hence, not wasting any more time outside my room, I strode towards the huge door that opened to the third floor deck directly.
A soft tune caught my attention on the way.
I removed the phone from my ear and listened carefully. The tune, a beautiful guitar melody of the song 'amar bhitor o bahire' was being played somewhere. It was soft, calm and literally burried under the sound of those huge waves that were splashing against the cruise. Not to forget, the harsh sound of the winds were nothing less. But irrespective of all those humongous disturbances, this baby soft tune managed to reach my ears. And no sooner it did, I realised that I had almost got my Tara back... for the song 'amar bhitor o bahire', was none other than Tara's favourite and I knew that THIS particular guitar melody was her ringtone for the past six years now.
-"TARA???" I shouted aloud as I ran towards the door.
The guitar melody sounded much prominent now. Surely it was coming somewhere from the door region.
Door? But Tara is not anywhere near the door!!
I looked around with frowns of confusion spread all over my face. Those frowns only deepend when I discovered a black handset of Samsung J7 lying on the floor, just near the door, with the name 'Monster' flashing across its screen.
Tara's phone it was, ringing and vibrating with MY calls...meant that the name- 'monster' was actually designated for me!
What an irony!!
I picked up the phone and stuffed it in my pocket. With slow but anxious feet, I stepped at the deck next and just few yards away, I found Tara's black stilettoes scattered over the floor. One of them had their heels broken while the other had its strap torn. Overall, they looked pathetic enough and I couldn't help but frown again to see her priced possessions thrown away on the deck just like that!
Man, I knew that she was mad.. like really, really mad. But this? Throwing things and all?? This was never her habit, not even in a state of extreme frustration. Then how come did it happen now? A gap of 3 years changed her so much that she was venting her anger upon things like her shoes and phone? Not done. I mean.. this was not my Tara, yaar. My Tara was far more matured to act like this! But then whatever was infront my eyes, how was I supposed to ignore that either?
My racing heart slowed down suddenly. Something was definitely not right around me and the vibes I was getting were so strong that my poor heart almost skipped a good couple of beats.
"Where are you Tara? Please come back... I'm getting scared now." I muttered under my breathes and looked around with tear clogged eyes.
And just then, Tara's shining gold bracelet hit my hazy eyesight.
Mind kept repeating from the back that the bracelet didn't belong to Tara by any means. He said that my eyes were teary and hence I was misinterpreting the things I saw. But how do I even tell him that he was wrong this time? That bracelet.. the sleek, shining band with a star made of diamonds embedded at its centre, DID BELONG to Tara and it was my own mother who had gifted her that on our wedding night!
I wasn't going to forget that gift... never ever in this life.
And mind should have known that already before coming to guide me with some false, baseless consolations!
-"TARA... CAN YOU HEAR ME? Please come back yaar.. P.L.E.A.S.E... I request you."
My body fell upon the floor like a heap of raw meat. Life seemed to be draining out from that heap with every passing seconds while all I could do was just sit back and watch it drain. Holding onto life was nearly impossible now. Though momentarily, but Tara was absent from life. And when she was absent then what was even left to hold back? Nothing right??.. just nothing.
Come on Dev, its not the time to break down like a looser. Go and find Nitara first and then cry out your heart for as long as you want.
Mind's words made me realise that I had been crying like a kid uptil now.
Like.. how stupid I could get!!
Irritated as fuck, I wipped my eyes roughly and got up from the floor. Heading for the northern side of the deck was the next plan to follow and I implimented it quick without wasting any more time by crying over Nitara's left out bracelet and stilettoes.
The land beneath my feet slipped away when I reached the sourthern part later.
Just infront of my eyes, almost ten-fifteen feet away, there I saw my Tara, standing over the third rod of the iron railing! Three more rods to climb and I knew she was going to meet her death after that!!
Shit!!
-"Tara?" I screamed at the top of my voice.
She didn't turn back at this. Neither did she move a bit. Looked like she wasn't bothered at all to see my face... even if was meant for a last time according to her.
-"TARA??" I screamed again.
The same ignorance came in response.
I pulled my hairs in frustration and shouted louder... just to see her climb one more rod with silent feet.
-"Fuck! Tara!!!"
That was the last thing I remembered before finding myself lying on top of my wife. Yes, I had managed to save to her somehow. Probably I had ran towards her and before she could climb the fifth rod, I had pulled her down by the waist... probably.
I really don't remember anything about the sequence inbetween.
Nor do I want to. It was worsest nightmare I ever had... that too when I was fully awake and in the middle of a situation where the life of my love was at stake!
Huh, Tara was just lucky that she didn't slip and fall down in the ocean. But I was definitely the luckiest to be spared from a massive cardiac arrest that I might have got becoz of her! Only becoz of her... that mindless idiot!!
A tight slap landed upon my cheek the next moment.
Another slap it was.
Or should I say 'the third slap for the day'?
Heck! What was going on, man?!!
-"This is what you do to the person who saves your life?" Bewildered and dumbstuck, I asked Nitara who had been looking at me with a major frown on her face.
And I guess my question just evoked the hidden tigress inside her, for she clenched her jaws and shouted at me back- "Who asked you to save me? Who asked you to do so much of charity work? Did I ask you so? No na! Then why did you save me? Why Dev, just WHY??"
-"You think I would have let you died just like that?" I shouted too. But quite contradictory to it, both my palms had wrapped around Tara's cheeks by then.
And damn yaar, they were so freaking cold!!
-"Tara, you are so.."
I had started rubbing her cheeks with the flat of my palms. But she being the stubborn mistress of all the times, dismissed my efforts by dusting off my hands from her face and shuting down my mouth altogether.
"YES, YOU SHOULD HAVE LET ME DIED Dev.. only that way both of us could have got our freedoms!" She said to me.
Her gaze, bored into the depth of my tired orbs, sent shivers down my spine.
-"Freedom?" I managed to utter somehow.
"Yes Dev, freedom... your freedom from getting nauseated whenever you see my face. And my freedom from getting slow deaths whenever I make you feel that way." She replied nonchalantly.
Daaaaamn! She remembered every word that I said to her!!!
-"Listen Tara, I don't get nauseated upon seeing your face. So just forget this bullshit and come with me." I got up from the floor and stretched my hand towards her.
Silently, she kept looking at my hand for few rough seconds before her eyes turned towards my face and she slightly shook her head to reply- "I am not going with you anywhere."
Just as expected.
-"You are cold. You need a change. Please understand that already?" I rolled my eyes at her.
She chuked it off with a sarcastic smile. "I need to get 'numb' Dev, I need to get 'freeze'... warmth is not going to work for me anymore." Said she.
-"Have you lost your mind?" I shouted after scrutinising her expressions for a long term. I had thought that were meant to irritate me. But heck, they were damn so real!
So what else do you expect from a person who had just tried to commit suicide? Greater maturity or a perfect stability of mind?? Mind poked from the middle, making me huff at my own sanity.
"I just want to end this life. Thats it." Her voice brought me out of my reverie.
-"And you think I would let it happen?" I asked disbelivingly. She wasn't quite effected though.
"You SHOULD let it happen, Dev.... You SHOULD understand that this is 'my' life and you are not supposed to interfere in it or make decisions on 'my' behalf!!"
Totally dumbfounded, I blankly stared at her face for a long time before releasing that she had actually lost her mind.
-"To hell with your thoughts. Just come me." I retorted thereafter and pulled her by the arm to drag her to our room.
Only if it was so easy!
In order to save herself, she grabbed my wrist with her other hand and held it in such a way that her long nails pierced into the depth of my skin.
Ofcourse it hurted... hurted me a lot.. blood had been oozing from the wound while the surrounding nerves had started throbbing like thousand dancing devils. Never in my life I had seen Tara this merciless.
-"You are hurting me dammit!" I screeched aloud when I couldn't bear the pain any longer.
"You leave me first... leave me for now and for ever." She said in reply.
Well, that was the ultimate threshold I was waiting for I guess.
-"So you won't come with me?"
"Hmm." She huffed amidst her tears.
-"Sure?" Say 'yes' and then see what I do with you.
"Yes." More tears flew out of her reddend eyes. I looked at them for one last time and huffed.
-"Fine. Don't blame me later."
"Huh? Blame you for wha...."
She couldn't complete her sentence. I didn't let her complete it. With a sudden pull, I scooped her up in my arms and then threw her on top of my right shoulder like a potato sac and headed straight towards our room.
Needless to say, the night was going to be long after that.
____________________________________
Author's note :P
Next update will be possibly after 9th december. Stay tuned till then. More of Dev's POV is coming on it way.
Happy reading.
~